Investigators say voice recording from EgyptAir crash intact

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian investigators said Saturday they would be able to access the cockpit voice recordings of the EgyptAir flight that crashed in May despite damage to the black box.

"None of the memory chips of the electronic board were damaged," the Egyptians participating in the examination of the device in France said in a statement, adding that only some connecting components had to be replaced.

"Test results were satisfactory as (they) enabled the reading of the recorders of the CVR memory unit," they added. The Egyptians now plan to bring the recorder to Cairo for further analysis.

The flight from Paris to Cairo crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19, killing all 66 people on board. The pilots made no distress call, and no militant group has claimed to have brought the aircraft down.

The flight data recorder shows that there was smoke in the lavatory and onboard equipment, and investigators say they have found heat damage on parts of the wreckage recovered from the Mediterranean Sea floor last month.

The bulk of the wreckage is believed to be at a depth of about 3,000 meters (9,800 feet). Deep ocean search teams are still working to find and recover human remains.

French authorities opened a manslaughter inquiry on Monday, but said there is no evidence so far to link the crash to terrorism.

EgyptAir Flight 804 disappeared from radar at about 2:45 a.m. local time between the Greek island of Crete and the Egyptian coast.

Radar data showed the aircraft had been cruising normally in clear skies before it turned 90 degrees left, then spun 360 degrees to the right as it plummeted from 38,000 feet (11,582 meters) to 15,000 feet (4,572 meters). It disappeared when it was at an altitude of about 10,000 feet (3,048 meters).